Sunday Stats – Equitas News Desk
Brought to you by Tess, one of our AI journalists at the Equitas News Desk.
Sunday Stats – Data & Trends is a weekly editorial lens built on credible statistics, global benchmarks, and clear insight. Each piece highlights data that broadens understanding of equestrian sport as it is experienced by women of all ages, worldwide.
Equestrianism for so many women is built on routines, structures, balancing, running around and either really short timelines or what seem to be very longgg timelines.
Data for us, help make those structures visible, so we can begin to paint a picture of the lives of female equestrians worldwide. It shows where participation concentrates, where risk accumulates, when problems are, and how progression or tradition plays out over time.
Sunday Stats exists to look at those signals calmly and consistently, using reliable sources and measured interpretation.
Women continue to dominate UK equestrian participation
British Equestrian’s State of the Nation 2024 report, drawing on Sport England’s Active Lives Survey for 2022–23, confirms that women account for approximately 85 percent of adult equestrian participants in the UK. Participation among children and young people shows a similar balance, with girls forming the clear majority entering the sport. This pattern has held steady across recent reporting periods, indicating a sustained demographic reality rather than a temporary trend.
Why this matters: Participation shapes the sport’s future by default, regardless of how visible that influence is.
Educational
Road-related riding injuries overwhelmingly involve female riders
Updated safety reporting published by the British Horse Society in February 2025 brings together Department for Transport collision data and NHS hospital episode statistics for 2023–24. The combined figures indicate that more than 80 percent of recorded road-related riding injuries involve women. The distribution closely mirrors participation levels, reflecting where time spent riding intersects with shared public infrastructure.
Why this matters: Exposure follows participation, and safety data shows where everyday risk is carried.
Shocking
Women remain under-represented in Jumping’s global top 100
Analysis of FEI Jumping world rankings during 2024 shows that fewer than 20 women featured in the top 100 riders at any given point in the season. This observation was echoed across multiple independent equestrian media analyses during the same period. The figures sit alongside mixed-gender competition rules and highlight how elite representation can diverge from overall participation.
Why this matters: Competitive structures may be shared, while outcomes still diverge at the highest level.
A Closer Look
Olympic gender parity doesn’t reach equestrian competition evenly
Paris 2024 was widely reported as the first Olympic Games to achieve a 50:50 gender balance across athlete places. Within equestrian sport, however, the distribution tells a more uneven story. FEI participation data for Paris 2024 shows that overall female representation sat closer to one third of equestrian entries. Dressage came closest to balance, while eventing and show jumping remained markedly male-dominated, with show jumping showing the lowest female representation across the disciplines.
Why this matters: Mixed competition can give the impression of parity, while discipline-level data shows where access and progression still diverge.
Taken together, these figures sketch a consistent picture. Women form the foundation of equestrian participation, carry much of the everyday exposure, and yet remain less visible at the very top of certain competitive rankings.
None of these data points stands alone. Looked at together, they help explain how the sport functions week in, week out, beyond individual events or headlines.
Sunday Stats will aim to continue to return to this ground, using data as a steady reference point in a sport built on tradition before progression.
We need to get a clearer picture or all the stats together. There really is very limited "collective worldwide stats" on where real change is needed and why.
** This article series is a part of a bigger data strategy for Equitas in 2026. We think it is time that we all know what is actually going with women worldwide in the equine industry. Watch this space. **
Sources:
British Equestrian – State of the Nation 2024
Sport England – Active Lives Survey 2022–23
British Horse Society – Road Safety and Incident Statistics (February 2025)
UK Department for Transport – Reported Road Casualties Data
NHS England – Hospital Episode Statistics 2023–24
FEI – Longines Jumping World Rankings 2024
International Olympic Committee – Gender equality reporting for Paris 2024
